


The City Is at War

by Marks



Category: Cobra Starship
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-20
Updated: 2007-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-28 08:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/672216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marks/pseuds/Marks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cobra Starship Fights The Man, aka Music is Outlawed AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The City Is at War

**Author's Note:**

> Written for foxxcub's The Bandom AU meme in 2007.

Nate got up on his tiptoes and peered through the peephole, cracking the door open but leaving it on the chain when he saw who it was.

"Password?"

Travis leaned up against the doorframe and rolled his eyes. "Nate, what the hell? You know it's just me and Bill."

"Password?" Nate repeated in a bored voice.

William propped his chin up on Travis's shoulder. "Gabe Saporta is the most degenerate individual on the planet."

Nate smiled a little but he didn't open the door.

"Fine," William drawled. "Cobra Starship."

At that, Nate closed the door, sliding the chain out of place to let Travis and William inside.

"So still the end of the world?" Travis asked, looping his arm around William's waist.

"And we're throwing the party," Nate said and winked. He locked the door again and waited for the next arrivals.

\--

Downstairs the party was in full swing, bassline pumping, music to William's ears. It had been about five years since The Takeover, people living in fear of the government's ban on anything that might be considered fun. William remembered movies, remembered singing in sweaty little clubs that were underground in name only, his band finally getting some recognition right before the end.

Gabe was one of the first casualties of the scene. When Midtown had refused to comply with the governmental decrees, still playing shows in supposedly condemned buildings but really abandoned venues, the police wanted to arrest all of them but Gabe took all of the blame onto himself. William had only been seventeen then, but of course the news made its way to Chicago. It was _Gabe Midtown_ , arrested and gone.

It felt like the final nail in music's coffin.

Only Gabe had escaped. No one knew how he did it; he never talked about it, only the mission. He'd gathered up the first musicians that seemed willing, called them his band of brothers (and one fine little sister), and now their word was spreading. People from the old scene heard first, word spreading from person to person, underground party to underground party. William found himself crammed in the backseat of vans, subjecting himself to full inspection at every state line and praying that his forged paperwork would keep just one more time. If any of them were caught they'd be dead, but honestly William thought it was worth it. The Takeover had killed them all a little already.

When the party was in full swing, sweaty bodies packed together from wall-to-wall, new faces and old dancing to songs that had before faded to dim memories mixed with shockingly new and original material, Gabe leapt on stage and quieted the crowd. The prisons hadn't left him unmarked, a jagged scar down one cheek and possibly more hidden under his hat and hoodie, but his sheer determination every time he did this gave William hope that his only scars were physical.

"I had a dream," Gabe said, a playful grin stretched across his face, "where a cobra from the future visited me and told me that it was our duty to take the music back. To take it _all_ back, consequences be damned, and dance until the end of the world. So who's with me?"

Pete Wentz -- And God, William didn't know _how_ he'd survived all of these years without being dragged in, he'd probably been hiding in his bandmates' basements -- yelled from the back, "Less talk, more action, Saporta!"

"I'll give you action," Gabe said and grabbed his crotch.

A ripple of laughter moved through the crowd, and it was like the last five years were melting away. 

"Fangs up, bitches!" Gabe yelled.

They could do this. William put up his hands, looked at Gabe and the people pressed all around him, and _believed_.


End file.
